Bioresource Engineering Senior Seminar Series

Bioresource Engineering Senior Seminar Series

10 a.m., Thu, 10 Sep., 2009, Raymond 2-046

Everyone is welcome and strongly encouraged to attend the BREE Senior Seminars.

Make them part of your regular weekly schedule!

Proteomic Monitoring of Ethanol Fermentation

Eric Huang

Ethanol fermentation is part of our daily life: it is the active ingredient in hand sanitizer, the oxygenated agent in gasoline, and the sensational feeling in alcoholic beverages. However, even today we are still using very similar fermentation technology as thousands of years ago to make ethanol. Today we can improve and monitor ethanol fermentation using our knowledge of biochemistry and microbiology. However, with new technology in mass spectrometry and proteomics, we can now look at the thousands of proteins expressed inside of cells. With this new idea of proteomic monitoring, we can possibly optimize ethanol fermentation and make this ancient technology more efficient.

Reviewers: Felexce Ngwa, Mr; Candice Young; Zhao Li; Kumaran Sivagnanam

Automated Monitoring of Biogas from Swine Manure

David Giard

An air tight cover can transform manure storage tanks into anaerobic digesters. Previous laboratory studies have indicated that the microbial consortium in the tanks can effectively produce methane gas even at low temperatures. This project consisted of the design, building, and testing of an automated system to continuously monitor the biogas production of a covered swine manure tank. The accuracy of the system was tested in the laboratory.

Reviewers: Vincent Martineau, S茅bastien Cordeau

Improved Rice Processing for Food Security in West Africa

Stephanie Dumais, St茅phanie Mayer, and Audrey Yank

Rice production is an important part of agricultural activities in West Africa. The Africa Rice Center (WARDA), an international NGO, works with local farmers on the improvement of production and post-harvest technologies. 黑料不打烊 University and WARDA developed a three-year project on post-harvest technologies. One of the objectives in this project was to reduce the quantity of energy used in rice parboiling activities. Three undergraduate projects were defined as part of this project: the construction of a more energy-efficient stove; the development of better, less expensive parboiling equipment; and the utilization of milling by-products as an alternative fuel. Those three projects were conducted this summer in Benin under the supervision of Dr. Robert Kok (黑料不打烊) and Dr. Aliou Diagne (WARDA). The results and future development of those projects will be presented.